L.A. Threatens to Pull Float From Rose Parade in 1995 : Pageant: City Council votes to end 97-year tradition unless women and minorities are named to association’s executive committee.

The city of Los Angeles, which has participated in the Rose Parade for almost a century, voted Wednesday to pull its float from the annual New Year’s Day fest in 1995 unless the Tournament of Roses Assn. diversifies its all-white-male executive committee.

“We don’t stand for all-white-male country clubs,” said Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas, who urged his colleagues to take the action. “We don’t wish to support such enterprises.”

The eight-member executive committee, which plans the prestigious parade, has become the focus of bitter protest in recent months. Critics have staged a series of demonstrations against the group and plan to hold their own “counter-parade” on Jan. 1 to highlight the lack of women and ethnic minorities in decision-making positions.

The Tournament of Roses said the city acted hastily without learning about efforts to foster greater diversity in its ranks.

“It’s unfortunate, because we’ve been working very hard to find some reasonable solution,” said John H.B. French, the group’s executive director.

French said the tournament has opened its doors to dozens of new minority members and placed blacks, Latinos and women in positions of authority in the organization.

Despite the stated goal of protesters to persuade sponsors to withdraw from the pageant, there will be 56 floats participating, compared to 57 in the last parade, French said.

“A number of sponsors have dropped out for various reasons, mostly economic,” French said. “But we have many new sponsors as well.”

The new sponsors include the Automobile Club of Southern California, Disneyland and Cacique Inc., the cheese maker, which will be the first Latino-owned company to sponsor a float.

Among those who have dropped out are General Motors, Bank of America, Vons and the city of Inglewood, although representatives said their decisions were business-related.

Jim Morris, a Pasadena developer who is leading the effort to expand the tournament’s executive committee, said other sponsors will be announcing their intent to withdraw.

Brotherhood Crusade President Danny Bakewell, who has led protests at tournament headquarters on Orange Grove Boulevard, said the council action “shows that this is not just a Danny Bakewell issue, a small group cursing the darkness.”

Bakewell and his supporters are demanding that the executive committee include four ethnic minorities, including at least one woman.

Los Angeles has sponsored a float in the parade since 1897. In pledging to pull out, the City Council condemned the tournament for “a tradition of denying women and persons of color access.” It ordered the city departments of airports, harbor, and water and power to withhold the $100,000 they planned to allocate for the city’s 1995 float.

Some members of the council had reservations about the strong language and urged a delay. “There are other ways to handle it,” said Councilman Hal Bernson, the sole member to vote against the action.

But supporters said the Tournament of Roses has employed exclusionary tactics for too long.

“Their history has not been good for a very, very long time,” said Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg. “It’s an exciting and thrilling event but, in good conscience, it is time for them to change. This is one of the last bastions of all-white, all-male leadership of a major event in Southern California.”

Behind the scenes, attorney Stan Sanders has been negotiating with the various parties at the behest of the mayors of both Pasadena and Los Angeles. Sanders had urged a delay in the council’s action, saying he’s confident a solution will be reached soon.